Prozzak pair bring animated act to life

So, you're the bassist and guitarist in Philosopher Kings.

 Your band has a reputation for being top-notch players, serious jazz-heads and purveyors of slick R&B and soul.

 So, what do you do for fun?

 Hang out in Yorkville, Montreal's jazz clubs or cruise the serious musical territory of Greenwich Village?

 No. You invent an animated Euro-trash pop group. You record an album of high-concept material, put out a couple of animated videos featuring yourselves as cartoon alter-egos and watch your side project sell more than 300,000 copies.

 All seems perfectly natural, doesn't it?

 Maybe not.

 "James and I wrote a song together on the tour bus one night and we went and recorded it as a joke more than anything else," says Philosopher Kings bassist Jason Levine, recalling how he and guitarist James McCallum came up with Prozzaek.

 In the animated world that is Prozzaek, Levine is Simon, the wide-eyed keyboardist and singer, while McCallum is Milo, the guitarist and Euro-rapper.

 The story is that Milo and Simon met while their countries were at war, realized they had humanity in common and were given a mission by a higher power to spread love in the world.

 Which they do -- albeit in a highly stylized, smart-alecky way that has proven highly successful. Now the Philosopher Kings members are nominated for Juno Awards.

 "The day before Prozzaek was conceived you could never have convinced me that I would do this and that it would be this successful," Levine says. "We're surprised that it made it to this level even though -- when we settled on the concept and said 'yeah, we're gonna do this -- we decided that we would be as accessible as possible."

 Even the group's irrepressibly catchy hit, Sucks To Be You, was unintentionally conceived.

 "I wrote that song without the phrase 'it sucks to be you' in it. It was a rock song called The Bastard Song, and I was pretty proud of it, but then James convinced that it could work as a dance tune, and away we went."

 Fuelled by the international release of Prozzaek's Hot Show album, Levine says now that Philosopher Kings are on hiatus Prozzaek will be his first priority.

 "James and I are living and breathing it right now. We just learned that Sucks To Be You is No. 2 on MTV2 and we're getting ready for the live thing."

 The "live thing" will feature McCallum and Levine accompanied by a full band, playing and singing the Prozzaek songs onstage while their cartoon counterparts are projected on video screens.

 "I'll be singing it all live, doing the voice while the real Simon is lip-synching," Levine says. "It'll be the same with James."

 And what do Levine's parents, who paid for his music lessons as a kid, think of the fact his son's musical success is as a cartoon character?

 "Well, they think it's funny and my dad, who's a dentist, has got all the platinum awards in his office."